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[00:00.88] Todd: Okay. So we’re talking about housing Meg. You know, these days, a lot of people can actually stay in houses when they travel. Like they don’t stay in hotels, they stay in a house. Have you heard about Airbnb?

[00:10.88] Meg: Yeah, I have heard of it. I’ve looked at the website a couple of times.

[00:14.89] Do they have Airbnb where you’re from?

[00:16.88] Todd: They do. They actually do have Airbnb in San Francisco but I have not used it in San Francisco, I’ve only used it actually traveling in other countries.

[00:25.88] I used it Thailand and I was going to use it in Japan but I ended up – I couldn’t use it because of the travel problems but yeah.

[00:34.63] Meg: So how does it work?

[00:35.89] Todd: Basically, what it works is if somebody owns a house, they can rent out a room.

[00:39.88] And so, you find a house online and then you book it with the scheduling system online.

[00:45.13] And then you pay Airbnb the money and then the people let you stay in their house.

[00:51.38] Meg: What are the cost usually? Is it expensive?

[00:53.88] Todd: It can be really cheap or really expensive. You have both ends.

[00:58.38] I mean, sometimes you can just rent a room and sometimes, you can actually rent the whole house.

[01:01.38] So, you know – and now, in places like Thailand or other places in Southeast Asia, what they do is a lot of condominiums now are kind of turning into mini-hotels.

[01:10.88] So rather than try to find long-term tenants, they just search for – or they just rent out their apartments on Airbnb.

[01:18.63] Meg: Right. Well, it sounds like a good way to stay some place you haven’t been before.

[01:23.63] Todd: It is good. I mean, when I used it in Thailand, what I liked about it was you feel like you have a real, you know, you have real roots there.

[01:30.38] You’re not in the hotel so nobody is kind of intruding on you or nobody is coming to clean your room everyday.

[01:37.88] So you feel like you have more privacy and you feel like you really live in the place.

[01:43.63] And usually, the apartments are in real neighborhoods so they’re not in touristy areas.

[01:45.88] So there are definitely some advantages.

[01:46.88] Meg: Would you say that it’s safe?

[01:47.88] Todd: Yeah. I guess that’s the biggest concern. It seems to be safe.

[01:50.88] I mean, from what I see – although there was an interesting case recently in California where they’ve had problems of squatters. And a squatter…

[01:57.63] Meg: What are squatters?

[01:59.38] Todd: A squatter is somebody who, they take the Airbnb house and then they just never leave.

[02:04.63] Meg: Oh.

[02:05.13] Todd: Yeah. And then they’re hard to evict. So that was one interesting thing.

[02:08.88] And then also, recently, the company has been in the news because people that have low-income housing, like government-subsidized housing, they’ve been trying to rent out their apartments on Airbnb.

[02:21.38] Meg: On Airbnb.

[02:22.88] Todd: And then the city or the government said, “Hey, you can’t do that because we give you this house at a discount to help you because you’re low income.

[02:29.63] So you can’t use it to make a profit.” So it’s been a very debatablesituation.

[02:34.38] Meg: Yeah. I guess it’s kind of like double dipping.

[02:36.13] Todd: Yeah.

[02:36.88] Meg: You’re getting discount or paid in a way to live there and then you want to get paid more.

[02:41.88] So it sounds like a problem.

[02:43.13] Todd: Yeah. So what do you think? Would you be interested in doing something like Airbnb?

[02:46.88] Meg: Yeah. I definitely think so.

[02:48.38] After researching a place, maybe if I have a lot of pictures and it seemed clear that it would be safe, yeah, I think I’d like to do it.

[02:57.38] Todd: And actually their website is fantastic. Like if you go to their website, you can, let’s say, choose a house in Paris or Madrid or whatever.

[03:04.88] And then they often have like the Google street cam thing so you can see what the house looks like on the inside.

[03:10.14] And then you could actually do the rotating camera and see what the neighborhood looks like.

[03:14.38] And then everybody leaves reviews about the owner and about their stay there, so you’d get a good feel about what the place is like. So it’s kind of a new way to travel, and it’s kind of cool.

[03:23.13] Meg: Yeah. It sounds interesting especially the reviews. I think knowing someone else has had a good experience, I would definitely be interested in doing it.

[03:29.63] Todd: Yeah, definitely.